What happened to OCZ after the declaration of bankruptcy? - Interview
Who is actually Tobias Brinkmann?
I started in the IT industry back in 2001 which now seems a lifetime ago. That was at Komplett, a company which pioneered and revolutionized online shopping in Scandinavia and today is the largest e-commerce player in region with over 14 webshops. I stayed with OCZ for close to 4 years during which we transitioned our business to focus on SSDs . After a short stint in the consumer electronics industry, I returned to OCZ back in 2011 and here we are. |
Michal Grác, editor-in-chief of pc.zoznam.sk
„The OCZ company is one of the leading producers also on our market. In Slovakia it is well-known not only for its SSDs, but also for their PSUs, labelled PC Power & Cooling. We cooperate with your company on regular basis, you send us testing samples which we test and subsequently write reviews. There has recently occured a very unpleasant thing, the OCZ unexpectedly declared bankrupcy. Why did the management decide to do such rapid step? Could not they prevent this by a change of policy or by interference into another field outside SSD and PSU?
What happened directly after bankrupcy? Was the company in a certain period ready for complete termination? Or were there in that time going on any discussions about buying the company?“
Tobias Brinkmann Vice President Global Marketing OCZ Storage Solutions
„2013 was indeed a turbulent year for OCZ as we faced a number of challenges:
What we have been missing in the recent past is the direct access to NAND which you need in the SSD market today in order to stay competitive and position yourself as a relevant player.
The SSD market is one of the fastest growing segments in the IT industry today. According to analysts the market size will be over $23 billion by 2017 so having that direct access to NAND will be a major competitive advantage.
Our goal is now to grow market share again both in the consumer and enterprise space.
OCZ was among the very first companies to launch a consumer SSD back in 2008. Since then we have established a large IP and patent portfolio both through in house development and acquisitions.
Our Barefoot 3 controller is one, if not the highest performing controller on the market, especially when it comes to sustained performance.
We now have all four pillars that will enable us to grow market share: a market leading in-house controller, application software, firmware and direct access to NAND.“
Michal Grác
„Not long after bankrupcy there was an acquisition with Toshiba. From which side did the first impulse come? What about Product Launches for future? „
Tobias Brinkmann
“OCZ Storage Solutions is part of the Toshiba Group but will operate as a separate entity.As such we are going to continue to launch market leading products and solutions for our target markets. We have our own R&D team which will now of course work closely with Toshiba, something that ultimately will benefit us and the market.
Toshiba will continue its own development, production and marketing of Toshiba branded SSDs while the new company, OCZ Storage Solutions, will also continue to sell its own OCZ branded SSD products through its own well established global sales channels
The launch of the Vertex 460which uses Toshiba 19nm NAND, came just a few days after the acquisition had been announced. Our flagship consumer SSD, the Vector series,was already based on Toshiba NAND, now all our client drives utilize premium Toshiba NAND.
When it comes to our enterprise product offering, we recently launched the Intrepid 3000 serieswith Toshiba NAND and we are going to continue to transition other products in the near future.
For the enthusiast, workstation and entry-level server market we are soon going to announce our new RevoDrive which will be based on 19nm Toshiba NAND and feature our own Barefoot 3 controller – the result is going to be an even higher performing drive.”
Michal Grác
„What about Support for legacy OCZ Products?“
Tobias Brinkmann
“Toshiba acquired the company’s assets and not the liabilities, but we are pleased that the new organization is able to continue to support existing customers with current SSD products. This supports the vast majority of consumers and all enterprise customers as our top volume products like the Vertex, Vector SATA and RevoDrive PCIe SSDs all continue to be supported. The Agility Series is already on the tail end of the lifecycle and we are able to provide one more year of support for this series. All OCZ Storage Solutions products launched after the acquisition, as well as any future products, will come with warranty support.”
Michal Grác, editor-in-chief of pc.zoznam.sk
„Quite recently you have published a press release in which you informed about another aquisition, this time in the area of PSUs. Is the company FirePower going to take over the whole PSU segment of OCZ? What brand will the new PSUs have? Will they preserve the original name PC Power & Cooling?
When are you planning to launch new PSU models by FirePower Technology? Have you also prepared any technological innovations for your customers? (passive PSU, some models with 80+ platinum technology?) Are you going to aim rather at the ratio of good price and efficiency or you are planning to please more demanding customers?“
Tobias Brinkmann Vice President Global Marketing OCZ Storage Solutions
“Toshiba only acquired the SSD assets from OCZ Technology and therefore a separate buyer had to be found for the power supply division. I am pleased that FirePower Technology purchased the PSU assets, plans to honor warranty obligations and has taken over the fantastic team we had as well. The plan is to keep the PC Power & Cooling brand as it is well respected for its technology.
For OCZ Storage Solutions, as you can tell by the new name already, this is an opportunity to put all focus and resources towards continuing to develop market leading storage solutions.
OCZ is now a fully integrated SSD provider and our focus will be to grow our SSD market share in the enterprise, OEM, SMB and consumer market.
We will continue to develop market leading hardware and software solutions.
With OCZ Storage Solutions being part of the Toshiba Group, we will have the ability to earlier access to NAND which may enable us to expand into additional market segments.“
Michal Grác, editor-in-chief of pc.zoznam.sk
„In recent months, SSD prices decreased. Traditional HDDs still continues to be used as mass storage. When will this change and will the HDD become extinct?“
Tobias Brinkmann Vice President Global Marketing OCZ Storage Solutions
“I believe HDDs will continue to exist as digital content continues to grow and HDDs are an inexpensive way to store the content.
SSDs are experiencing extraordinary growth; just in 2013 the number of units shipped nearly doubled despite that the overall computer storage industry declined by 5%.
Combined shipments worldwide last year for the hard disk drives (HDD), solid-state drives (SSD) and optical disk drives (ODD) making up the computer storage market amounted to 755.0 million units, down from 794.0 million in 2012. While SSD shipments were up an outsize 82 percent to 57.0 million units, both the HDD and ODD segments proved to be a drag. The HDD segment fell 7 percent to 444.4 million units, and the ODD sector did worse with a 12 percent decline to 253.5 million units. (Data source: IHS) “
Michal Grác, editor-in-chief of pc.zoznam.sk
„Thank you very much for your time and I wish you all the best in the future.“
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